well because the people who commit such acts are part of their target audience…ya see in conservative world fear and hate and ignorance sells and sells big
Juan Williams sure has sunk to some pathetic lows from his NPR days. Now he argues the definition of well defined words to mental lightweights, and he can’t even do that convincingly.
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I prefer the definition “the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims”. The intimidation is the “terror” part of “terrorism”: the idea is to terrify people into stopping doing something they have every right and reason to do, for fear of being randomly “selected” for a gruesome torture or death.
Wikipedia has a more verbose definition (“violent acts (or threat of violent acts) intended to create fear (terror), perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal, and which deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (e.g., neutral military personnel or civilians).”) which brings in the noncombatants angle as well.
In any case, the Roeder incident has every hallmark of modern terrorism:
- An organized group
- Aiming to stop citizens from exercising their rights (to an abortion, or to practice medicine)
- Using violent “deter by example” means (bomb threats, death threats, actual assassinations; I’d add TRAP laws and the like in this section if the other examples weren’t so much more serious).
That, folks, is terrorism, in its most modern sense. Compare this to ISIS:
- An organized group
- Aiming to stop citizens from exercising their rights (to choose a religion not in line with the particulars of the ISIS dogma)
- Using violent “deter by example” means (beheadings, immolations, etc)
The main difference, though, is the hitch in the Fox News official definition of terrorism, which says:
Terrorism is the killing of Americans to achieve a political effect with which we at Fox News do not agree and have not conditioned our users to accept as God’s Plan. Especially true if the perpetrators are brown.
(paraphrased)
When someone threatens or commits violence in order to change other people’s behaviors, that is the definition of terrorism.
When someone blows up a crowded subway, bar, or gathering place in order to make a political expression, that is the definition of terrorism.
When someone shoots innocent people that have nothing to do politics or governments, that is the definition of terrorism.
When someone stokes FEAR in a population in order to gain political advantage, that is the definition of terrorism.
Terrorism: (noun) the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.
Why is this so difficult for Fox News to understand?
Why does everyone forget right-wing, Fox devotee, Jim David Adkisson? He committed the Knoxville Unitarian church shooting He was motivated by his hatred of liberals and Democrats. His house was filled with books from right-wing authors like O’Reilly, Savage, Hannity, Bernie Goldberg, and etc. Huffpo had the best, most complete coverage. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kim/right-wing-tn-church-shoo_b_115789.html